Don Schakowsky is, among other, a bond court judge.
Alicia Florrick met him for the first time in a bond court, where he refused to acknowledge her as a bar attorney and give her clients, calling her “Marie Antoinette” and stating that she will slow down his courtroom proceedings. As she didn’t give up, with time she managed to get work in bond court, but Schakowsky was angered numerous times by her search for justice instead of fast dealing with clients.
One of Schakowsky’s tactics to speed the processes up is his threatening to bar attorneys that he will tax their clients, i.e. he will raise their bail amount.
FBI investigated him for two years and at one occasion undercover agent Roland Hlavin made a fake case and arranged a bribe to Schakowsky to dismiss charges. Although corrupted, Schakowsky was warned about FBI’s trap by Eli Gold, to whom Alicia talked about the FBI’s fake case in which she coincidentally participated. Therefore Schakowsky didn’t take the bribe and wasn’t arrested.
When Schakowsky showed complete bias and unfair judging in one of Alicia’s cases, she went to his office and requested fairness in the rest of the proceeding. She indicated that he might hold grudge against her because she was inadvertently part of FBI’s investigation of him, also pointing out that she knows he didn’t take the bribe because of Eli Gold’s warning. In rage, Schakowsky drove Alicia out of his office. However, when the trial ended and jury decided against Alicia’s client, Schakowsky vacated jury’s verdict, thus giving Alicia’s client another chance. His ruling shocked whole courtroom and left Alicia in disbelief, with feeling like she was part of Schakowsky’s corruption.
Alicia sued Schakowsky when she found out that one of her first client in bond court, whom Schakowsky raised bail amount to unaffordable 150,000 USD, was unlawfully imprisoned for eight months. Schakowsky used his influence and status to turn the lawsuit against Alicia and beat her in court, charging her 1.5 million USD. She got the money by joining to Lockhart, Agos and Lee.
Quotes[]
“Ma'am, when did you think bond court was about being fair? (…) This is not To Kill a Mockingbird. This is not Anatomy of a Murder. This is a constitutionally mandated necessity. It is Lucille Ball wrapping chocolates on an assembly line. Cases get processed; justice is served for the greater whole. Not for you, not for her. For all people. And I will be damned if I will allow you to gum it up.” - Taxed